Moon/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim reads from a typed letter. Tim: Dear Tim and Moby, Could you please make a movie about the moon? (signed) C3PO. The moon has fascinated humanity since the dawn of time, and continues to captivate us to this day. It's Earth's only natural satellite, making one complete revolution around our planet every 27 days or so. An animation of the Earth rotating and the moon revolving around it is shown. Tim: The moon is the fifth planet in the sky, next to the sun between Earth and Mars. But the moon doesn't actually make any light of its own. The light you see is actually from the sun, reflecting off the surface of the moon. It's like shining a flashlight on something in a dark room. Moby's metallic face is illuminated in a dark room as if by a flashlight. Tim: The moon doesn't always appear as a perfect circle. It goes through phases. Various phases of the moon are shown. First a full moon, then a three-quarter moon, then a half, then a crescent. Tim: Sunlight strikes the moon at different angles throughout its journey around the earth. The way the moon looks to us depends on how much of the moon's illuminated side is visible to us at that time. The moon may take 27.3 days to orbit the Earth, but the time from one full moon to the next is the 29.5 days because the earth is also moving, in relation to the sun. We call this period from one full moon to the next a lunar month, by the way. Moon watching is a fun thing to do. A close-up of the moon is shown. An arrow points to one of the dark patches on the moon. Tim: The moon is an average of about 380,000 kilometers from the Earth, which is pretty close when you're talking about space. Because of its proximity, you don't need a telescope to see the features on the moon's surface. The sunken plains called seas, or maria, which is Latin for "ocean". Moby: Beep? Tim: Naw, they're just called that – There's no liquid water on the moon. But there is some water in the form of ice. Recently, a NASA spacecraft discovered almost 100 kilograms of ice and water vapor near the moon's south pole. Moby: Beep? Tim: Yup, it's possible there's lots more buried just underneath the surface but I wouldn't count on, you know, a skating rink or anything like that. The lighter patches are mountains. An arrow is shown pointing to a mountain on the moon. Moby is shown looking up into the sky with a pair of binoculars. Tim: And armed with a pair of binoculars, on a clear night you may be able to see the craters formed by ancient meteor collisions. A close up of a meteor crater on the moon is shown. Moby: Beep? Tim: Well there's a lot of debate as to how the moon got there in the first place. Some scientists believe that it may have just formed along with the Earth from the initial cloud of gas and dust that formed our solar system. Another idea is that the moon was once part of the Earth and broke off for some reason. It might have been just floating through the solar system and got captured by Earth's gravity. An image of the Earth in space and the Moon are shown. A dotted line shows the path taken by the moon in this theory, from far away to close and then into Earth's orbit. Tim: Still another theory suggests that a rogue planet, about the size of Mars, smashed into the Earth creating a cloud of molten rock that eventually condensed into the moon that we see today. An image shows a large space rock smashing into the Earth and creating a huge explosion of rock into space. Tim: No one really knows for sure. Regardless of how it formed, the moon is basically a ball of igneous rock with a small core of iron and sulfur. It has a rocky crust, consisting of aluminum and calcium. You can find bigger moons in the solar system, but ours is biggest compared to the size of the mother planet. It’s large enough to pull at the waters of the Earth, causing tides. Tim is shown in a space suit standing on the Moon and holding a heavy air conditioning unit up with one hand. Tim: Still, gravity on the moon is only one sixth of the Earth's. That’s why this air conditioner feels six times lighter up here. And since there is no atmosphere, there's nothing for sound waves to travel through. That means it’s absolutely silent here. Moby: Beep? Tim: On July 20th, 1969, the landing module Eagle from the module Eagle from the Apollo 11 Mission touched down on the surface of the moon. An animation shows the Eagle landing on the moon, its shadow growing as the landing gear approaches the surface. An astronaut jumps along the moon's surface. Each jump takes him unusually high because of the low gravity. They collected some samples and then blasted off, leaving this plaque behind: HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969, A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND. Tim: The first moon landing, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the greatest...moments...in human...history. Moby: Beep? Tim: Be quiet. I have something in my throat. And my eyes. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts